Eileen FitzGerald: Bethel middle schoolers on to nationals with invention

Updated 11:13 pm, Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Bethel students Xander Goodwin, Jan Krepsztul, and Henry Specht are on to a national competition with their design of Hydro Action City.

The 12-year-old seventh-graders at Bethel Middle School created a city using their invention of a transportation system called the Mass Transit Pumper and won first place in the regional contest for the Future City Competition for Middle Schools.

This year's theme of the annual competition was "Tomorrow's Transit: Design A Way To Move People In And Around Your City."

Students were asked to review the transportation options and needs of their own city, create viable ideas that consider safety, accessibility, intermodality and sustainability in an effort to re-imagine a better and more efficient city.

Their system uses the city's drinking water infrastructure to move citizens and visitors inside pods, which are propelled with water pressure.

Henry Specht said that he knew they had a good project when they arrived at the regional competition, but still was surprised to win over the other good projects there.

But the boys also had to make a city around the transportation element.

"We had to make it so a city could actually appear in a real-life situation," Henry said.

That meant they had to present solutions for water, sewer, education and other aspects of city life.

The Bethel team created Crimebot 3.2, a personal crime prevention system; Citizens Collaboration Center, a futuristic library and collaborative innovation center; Lens Vapor Purification, a system to purify water; unique Water Wheels that power the city; Power Bikes to generate power in homes; and Action Care, a personal health monitoring system.

The power for the city comes from water wheels in the adjacent St. Lawrence River and exercise equipment powered by the citizens.

Jan Krepsztul said they located the city in Canada on the banks of the St. Lawrence, which is deep enough to put water wheels under the river and still allow ships to pass over.

In addition, they won special awards for best use of Water Resources, Best Model and as the People's Choice.

Now they will compete with their city concept at the National Finals in Washington, D.C., Feb. 15 to 18 where up to 37 regions will be represented.

The grand prize is a trip to the U.S. Space Camp in Alabama and $7,500 for the winners' school's STEM program.

For the competition, the students worked as a team to design a virtual city using SimCity¢ software. They researched a city-wide issue and wrote an essay with their findings and solutions.

They built a 24-by-48-inch scale model of their city using recycled materials costing no more than $100.

"It's supposed to be a city of the future," Zander Goodrich said. "Making the model was the best part, to build it and spray the parts and put it together."

Jan said he designed the virtual city and the university and water pump system for the project.

"I think it was a very good project to work with my team, who were my friends," Jan said. "We brainstormed many ideas about transportation. I thought of a pod through the air and Henry thought of the pod through the water, which was more efficient."

The competition, which is judged by a point system, is coordinated by engineering societies or universities in regional areas around the country. The New England event is run by the Boston Society of Civil Engineers.

Reed Brockman, who coordinates the New England event with Michelle Jose, praised the Bethel project. "It's a very good model," he said. "Every element made sense."

The competition is important for the engineers and volunteers who help with the competition, Brockman said.

"We are blown away by the contest ideas. They are expressing their ideas and really talking about how to make the world a better place,'' Brockman said. "It's easy to forget why you go into this field (engineering) but then you see all their work about making the community a better place and their idealists beliefs and it recharges you. The kids are really inspiring."